Are You an Animal,Vegetable or Mineral?

Our class has been working really hard over the last couple of weeks testing for and identifying twelve different mineral's physical properties.   Each week the kiddos perform different tests and carefully record their results in their Mineral ID packets.  This week the students performed a hardness test scratching each mineral with a copper penny and a iron nail.   It was a multi-step test and although not difficult, the process was on the confusing side.  The kids all worked hard and we seem to accomplish the tests with much more ease than when we first started.   It has been a real learning experience for me witnessing the kids different learning styles and how they work; learning who will be good to go right out of the gate and who may need us to check in at the beginning just to help them get going.    They are a great group and have worked really hard and I am glad that Arlette and I will be able to complete the Mineral Identification Packet before our time in the classroom is up.  

 Tying in the Engineering and Technology frameworks with the rocks and mineral unit proved challenging for us.   We attempted to do so by having a discussion about the use of minerals.  We talked about how testing the minerals hardness didn't just help Geologists (and the students!) identify minerals but also helped them know what tasks and inventions the minerals would be best suited for.  We spent some time discussing the use of different minerals and what rocks and minerals would be good for certain tasks.   The kids all agreed that they would not want to build a house out of talc. 

We ended the lesson talking about the many different jobs a Geologist has, how it isn't just sitting in a lab testing the physical properties of rocks and minerals.   We had a presentation explaining how among other cool things, Geologists work at NASA examining samples from Mars looking for signs of life,  some examine dinosaur bones, and others may travel the world studying volcanos.  The kids than wrote in their journals about what they would do if they were a Geologists.  Would you believe with all the cool job descriptions we gave at least two of the students said they would travel around, find rocks and minerals and test for their physical properties.  Ha!

What Kind of Mineral Are You? http://quizilla.teennick.com/quizzes/8029645/what-kind-of-mineral-are-you

Computer Writings on Computers and Writing!

This week the class continued their work on their Mineral Identification Guide.  We have worked out some kinks as far as materials and groupings and this weeks stations ran great.   Each week allows us Arlette and I to see how we can improve the process and make the next weeks lesson run smoother. I think we should have it all figured out in a couple of weeks.... uh oh! Although we will be moving on from our science class,  I know will absolutely be putting the strategies and techniques I have learned to use in my future classrooms.

We are in a very tech friendly room so luckily we have been able to incorporate technology pretty much each week; this week we chose a website that demonstrated a real Mineral Identification Guide.  We did this hoping that the kids would make the connection between the tests they are performing each week and what their final outcome will be.   We wanted them to see by conducting tests on minerals they are slowly determining what each mineral is; that what they are doing in the classroom Geologists really do out in the field.  

To get our kiddos to do some science writing we played a sort of "What Mineral Am I?" Game.  We had the students review the mineral properties that they have collected over the prior weeks and write clues about what mineral they were describing.   Their partner had to use the clues and guess the mineral.  The students seemed to really like the activity and I hope it also reinforced the other skill we have been trying to work on with the kids about keeping detailed records.    

I think our lesson went well.  Our kids are working really well together and with us.   I am glad that with the way the timing is running we will actually be able to finish the Mineral ID guides with the kids.  It will be cool to be able to wrap it up together.    

Isn't a Mineral Just a Pretty Rock?

How are Minerals Identified Our class is currently working on building a Mineral Field Book which at the end of our lessons will have all the physical properties of twelve different minerals identified. This week the class did tests to determine the minerals shape, smell, and feel. Because we have just begun our work with minerals, the misconception identification and the vocabulary section fit in perfectly. The common misconceptions that Arlette and I focused on this week was the belief that rocks and minerals are the same thing and that minerals are not important to their lives. I used a fake conversation I had with my son, who is the same age as our students, to introduce the misconceptions. I told the class that he had been operating under those beliefs. When I asked if any of them had thought the same things ,many shook their heads that they had. I think hearing that another kid had shared the same belief allowed them to feel safe to say they had been mistaken as well. I think the conversation really got our point across and I hope the misconceptions are resolved! Our content vocabulary this week focused on the words that describe a mineral's physical properties and the tests we do to determine them. The words were not easy, and no matter how many time we reassured the kiddos that we would help them fill in their definition sheets, we had a few who were very nervous that they were not getting the vocab down correctly. We witnessed the same anxiety when we performing the testing; some kids got very upset when they felt they would not have their work completed by the end of the class. No amount of reassuring placated them. It was an issue I hadn't even considered before this class but I am positive I will never not consider it again! Some kids are going to be a bit more intense and I will remember that in my lesson planning and execution from now on. The flow of our class was relatively smooth this week. We had the kids working at three different stations so it could have been a disaster. The transition between the stations was smooth. The kids have a property sheet for each of the minerals they they are investing; so they are carrying around a packet of twelve sheets. We hadn't considered it but asking kids to move around and keep account for their various sheets could have been problematic. Arlette and I came up with the on-the-spot decision to make the kids hold their complete packet in the air before they moved to the next station. This way we had no "oh no, I think I left my mineral C paper at station 2," type of problems. Monday's lesson really showed me that with no matter how much planning we do, there really are just some issues we will not consider until we are facing them. We hear a lot about how we have to be flexible and Monday's class really reiterated that point.

  

The Perfect Storm

A week of snow days, trick or treating the night before, a sugar high....I think we all encountered the perfect storm this week.   This is also our third week in front of the class and you can tell the shine has worn off!  Just as Arlette and I have become more comfortable in front of the students, they are becoming more comfortable with us. Which includes pushing the envelope of behavior, which is to be expected.  Overall, I think we have a really great class who are all geared up to learn.  I totally get it, they are excited…science lessons are exciting, they are working in groups, they are handling all the materials and they are all eight and nine years old! I understand that it is easy to start to slip off task or need a reminder or two or five that they need to keep working.   Arlette and I have found that they respond very well when we give five minute timed warnings that they need to conclude the task they are doing and be ready to move on.    I have also found that when the kids are having some difficulty staying on task, just getting down lower so you are looking them in the eyes or a light touch on the shoulder helps them regroup and focus.   

The process skills we worked on in our mineral lesson keeping accurate records.   Arlette and I have been working really hard the last couple of weeks to get across to our students that although the experiments are fun, they also need to be documenting carefully what they observe.   I think it is easy when there is a lot of hands-on activites going on that the kiddos don’t want to stop and take a pen to paper.   As we walked around observing the groups I would say to the kids, “working off only your observations, describe to me mineral 1.”  It seemed to be a succesful prompt, the kids could quickly see if their records were lacking and hopefully they could see that keeping records serve a purpose it isn't just busy work we have them do. 

AND IN CONCLUSION…

If only the students would just let us give the lesson conclusion as it is written on our plan!!  J   Our group is great, they come up with great questions and connections that they are so eager to share but I think if they knew we had a pre-scripted conclusion that would really tie our whole lesson together they would be sitting in rapt silence! HA!   I know it is vital that we get the wrap up in so it we are trying to be very good about making time for it.    Both Areltte and I are becoming more skilled at tying our students questions and comments into what we need to say so that our students are heard but our conclusion is also getting across.  Becoming being the operative word!   

We can all only get better right?